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Statistics of the EU

With this publication, the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs intends to contribute to a better understanding of economic developments in the eurozone and to improve the quality of the public debate surrounding the area's economic policy. The Report will be released at the end of March, June, September and December.

CRLs are analytical laboratories designated by Community directives and regulations. They are an integral part of European risk management system. The mission of the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) is to promote a common and reliable European measurement system in support of EU policies.

The Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) conducts regular harmonised surveys for different sectors of the economies in the European Union (EU) and in the applicant countries. They are addressed to representatives of the industry (manufacturing), the services, retail trade and construction sectors, as well as to consumers. These surveys allow comparisons among different countries’ business cycles and have become an indispensable tool for monitoring the evolution of the EU and the euro area economies, as well as monitoring developments in the applicant countries.

Business and consumer surveys - Economic sentiment indicator. The Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) conducts regular harmonised surveys for different sectors of the economies in the European Union (EU) and in the applicant countries. They are addressed to representatives of the industry (manufacturing), the services, retail trade and construction sectors, as well as to consumers. These surveys allow comparisons among different countries’ business cycles and have become an indispensable tool for monitoring the evolution of the EU and the euro area economies, as well as monitoring developments in the applicant countries.

The Statistical Data Warehouse is the ECB’s new online data delivery service for statistics. It is intended for a wide range of users of euro area statistics, ranging from one-time visitors searching for a specific most recent statistic or a single data series to more frequent users such as market participants, journalists, analysts and researchers. It features robust and simple-to-use interfaces that allow users to quickly find, display, chart and download euro area data, including in some cases national breakdowns.

The report "Rural Development in the European Union - Statistical and Economic Information - Report 2006" provides, at national and regional levels, statistical and economic information covering the three objectives of Rural Development policy 2007-2013. It also gives an overview of the implementation of Rural Development policy for the programming period 2000-2006.

Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the European Communities. Established in 1953, Eurostat's mission is to gather and analyse figures from the different European statistics offices in order to provide comparable and harmonised data to the European Institutions so they can define, implement and analyse Community policies.
Eurostat data covers the European Union, its Member States and its partners, and is published under a variety of Themes and Collections.

EU-wide health data from the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) project is now published on the Commission's Public Health website. The aim of ECHI data is to enable policy makers to track developments in the health status of EU populations. The ECHI indicators aim to cover the 25 MS, the EU Candidate Countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey), the West Balkan Countries, the USA, Canada and Japan.

Economic growth is projected to rebound in 2006 to 2.3% in the European Union and to 2.1% in the euro area, up from 1.6% and 1.3% in 2005, according to the Commission’s spring economic forecasts. The main impulses stem from a robust increase in investment, continued strong world growth and an improved outlook in Germany. Growth is expected to edge slightly lower in 2007 to 2.2% in the EU and 1.8% in the euro area. The EU as a whole is expected to create 3 ½ million new jobs over the period 2006-07, after nearly 3 million in the previous two years. This will help reduce unemployment from a peak of more than 9% in 2004 to an expected 8.2% in 2007 in the EU. Inflation remains remarkably stable at slightly above 2% despite soaring oil prices, which remain the main risk to economic growth.

The new edition of European business - facts and figures, published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, gives a comprehensive picture of the structure, development and characteristics of European business and its different activities: from energy and the extractive industries to communications, information services and media. It presents the latest available statistics from a wide selection of statistical sources describing for each activity production and employment, country specialisation and regional distribution, productivity and profitability, the importance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), work-force characteristics, external trade etc.